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Mollie Arbuthnot specialises in visual culture in the early Soviet Union – including mass media, propaganda, and theories of viewership – as well as the history of Soviet multinationalism. Her current research project examines Islamic and Central Asian art in Soviet museums.

Academic interests

Mollie Arbuthnot’s academic interests include: 

• Soviet visual and material culture
• Modernism
• Museums and heritage
• Empire, anti-imperialism, and national identity in the Soviet Union
• Central Asia.

Degrees obtained

• BA, MML, Cantab.
• MA, History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art.
• PhD, Russian Studies, University of Manchester.

Awards and prizes

• Highly Commended, British Association of Slavic and East European Studies (BASEES) Postgraduate Prize, 2021.
• Manchester Doctoral College Excellence Award for Best Outstanding Output in the Humanities, 2020.

Biography

Mollie Arbuthnot’s PhD project combined her two main spheres of interest – Russian studies and history of art – to focus on visual propaganda in the early Soviet period. It explored propaganda posters and constructing national identity in 1920s-30s Uzbekistan. She undertook this research project at the University of Manchester under the supervision of Vera Tolz.

During her PhD she spent time as a visiting researcher at the European University at St Petersburg and the History Institute of the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, as well as completing a research project at the British Library in London.

She taught in the History department at Durham University before joining Cambridge and ÌÀÍ·ÌõÔ­´´ in 2021.

Other interests

Travel, rowing, and food, not necessarily in that order.